SGS Notes: You may have guessed by now that one of my favorite commentators is Jeff Nielson, Senior Precious Metals Analyst for BullionBulls Canada. I'm featuring several of his articles this week because he has always been so 'spot on' with regard to this market…and I love how well he is able to articulate these concepts so that anybody can understand without having their eyes gloss over!

How Your Bank Account Could DisappearJeff Nielson

On the same morning we hear that ¼ of Wall Street executives think that fraud is a necessary part of "doing business" in the financial sector, we hear of a second "MF Global". The U.S.'s so-called regulators are now reporting that somewhere around $220 million in customer funds is "missing" at a financial institution known as PFGBest; once again closing the barn door after all the cows have run off.

With at least one out of every four bankers at U.S. Big Banks (that's how many admitted to being crooks in the survey) thinking that stealing is part of their job descriptions, it's very important for people to realize how little protection there now is between these thieves and your bank accounts. Based on the writing of a number of other individuals with more expertise in these markets, it is apparently an inherently fraudulent banking process known as "rehypothecation" which is allowing the mass-plundering of accounts at U.S. financial institutions, with other Western financial regulatory authorities also rubber-stamping this relatively new form of bankster crime.

Rehypothecation is a heinous practice permitted by the pretend-regulators of Western markets, where financial institutions are allowed to pledge their clients' funds as collateral to cover their own gambling debts. I say "inherently fraudulent" since few of the clients of these financial institutions would ever knowingly enter into contracts with these gambling-addicts where their cash could be used to cover their bankers' gambling debts.

Instead, what is happening here is that the rehypothecation clauses are being buried in the "small print" of these contracts and (obviously) never properly explained to these clients: seemingly textbook fraudulent misrepresentation. The only "advantage" to a client into entering into such a contract is a slight reduction in fees, or slightly improved interest rate - certainly not near enough to entice people into risking some near-100% loss insuring someone else's gambling debts.

So we have our "regulators" (i.e. the only protectors of our funds in the hands of these admitted thieves) giving these fraud-factories the green light to enter into these inherently fraudulent contracts, putting any/all funds of these clients in permanent jeopardy. Thus it's important to outline how this could happen with ordinary bank accounts.

First it must be noted that the Corporate Media (loyal friends of the Big Banks) are referring to this as a "brokerage" problem. Understand that a brokerage is nothing but a legal "bookie", an entity which takes (and makes) bets, and which must hold the funds of its "customers" in order to do business. Apparently the principal difference now between a "legal" bookie and an "illegal" bookie is that an illegal bookie is much less likely to use his customers' funds to cover his own bad bets.

What people must also understand is that the world's biggest bookies, indeed, the biggest bookies in the history of the world are the Big Banks themselves (specifically U.S. Big Banks). Most of their gambling is done in their own, rigged casino: the $1.5 quadrillion derivatives market.

Note that you won't see that number quoted by the Corporate Media (any longer). As concern about the size of the bankers' mountain of bets grew; the bankers asked the Master Bookie - the Bank for International Settlements - to change the "definition" of this market, and instantly the derivatives market shrunk to 1/3rd its former size.

As many know, the BIS is known as "the central bank for central banks". What a smaller number of people know is that this is the world's great money-laundering vehicle, an entity created just before World War II specifically to allow Western industrialists to continue to do a vast amount of business with Adolph Hitler. In other words, it's not exactly a reliable source for information. So I choose to use the same numbers that the banksters previously used themselves, before they started getting defensive about the insane amounts of their gambling.

We are being led to believe by the Corporate Media (another unreliable source) that this problem is only a risk for all individuals with "brokerage" accounts, however as we piece together all the pieces of the puzzle (already revealed) this is what we see before us:
1) Our banking regulators knowingly allow financial institutions to engage in recklessly misleading (if not outright fraudulent) contracts with their clients, through the use of complex "small print" in their account contracts with clients.
2) The three largest U.S. "banks" by deposit (JP Morgan, Bank of America, Citigroup) have made bets in their own rigged casino, which total well in excess of $100 trillion, an amount which completely dwarfs their total, combined deposits (and assets).
3) A large portion of those bets occur in the $60+ trillion credit default swap market. Pay-outs in these markets can (and do) exceed 300 times the amount of the original bet. It is bets in this market which "blew up" AIG, requiring more than $150 billion in immediate government aid.
4) Following the Crash of '08; these same banks mooched a package of hand-outs, tax-breaks and "guarantees" (i.e. future hand-outs) from the Bush regime in excess of $15 trillion, the last time their gambling debts went bad on them - and all of these banks have been allowed to dramatically increase the total amount of their gambling since then.
5) It would take only a minor change in the gambling contracts in which these bankers engage to allow their creditors to seize funds out of ordinary bank accounts.
6) The existing language for the bank accounts of these U.S. banks is possibly already so vague (and prejudicial to clients) that it would allow these banks to reinterpret the terms of these bank accounts - and allow rehypothecation to be used to rob the holders of ordinary bank accounts, people who themselves make no "bets" in markets whatsoever. Alternately, customers could be blitzed with an offer for "new and improved" bank accounts, where terms allowing rehypothecation are slipped into the contract, with the banks knowing that the "regulators" will do nothing to warn account-holders of the gigantic risk they are taking.

The same media apologists who would scoff at this suggestion are the same shills who claimed "there could never be another MF Global". Meanwhile we have the biggest gambler of them all, JP Morgan, just confessing to having made more of these bad bets - which continue growing larger by the $billion.

When we add-in the fact that the U.S.'s mark-to-fraud accounting rules mean that these banks are easily able to hide the level of their insolvency, the pretend-regulators apparently don't have the slightest idea of the level of risk to which account-holders are being exposed. This is the charitable explanation for these facts. The alternative interpretation is that these "regulators" are direct accomplices of the criminal banking cabal.

I have consistently referred to the U.S. financial sector as a "crime syndicate" for several years now, often drawing considerable criticism for supposedly hyperbolic rhetoric. Obviously I have been completely vindicated here. One quarter of these bankers are now confessed thieves. The pretend-regulators (notably the SEC and CFTC) on a daily basis rubber-stamp the banksters' acts of fraud (where they are caught red-handed) - handing out totally trivial fines, and not even requiring these thieves to admit their guilt.

If there are any substantive differences between how the U.S. financial sector is allowed to operate versus any generic definition of a "crime syndicate", it would be enlightening to hear what those (supposed) differences are. And now these thieves are closer than ever to simply reaching into peoples' bank accounts and grabbing every dollar they can steal.

The principal reason why I and others have urged people to convert their banker-paper to gold and silver in the past was the 1,000 year track-record of these bankers' paper, fiat currencies always going to zero (through the bankers recklessly diluting these currencies via over-printing). However, we can add to that a much more basic reason: every ounce of gold and silver which you purchase (and store in your own home "safe" or other secure location) is wealth which cannot be stolen by the banking crime syndicate. This is what commentators are really referring to when they speak of "counterparty risk": placing your future financial security in someone else's hands.

What the large financial institutions of the 21st century have taught us (through the cruel "lessons" of their serial crimes) is that there is no one in the world whom you can trust less with your money than a banker.

SGS Notes: This week started with a BANG! as we watched precious metals begin their long-forecasted breakout. Gold started the week Sunday night at $1619.00 and closed tonight at $1671.90. Silver began the week at $28.19 and ended at $30.82. Our Gold/Silver ratio dropped from 57 to 1 to 54 to 1… a move in the right direction… but a long way to go before it gets back to its historical rate of 16/1. We've seen big names in the industry liquidating their paper investments and putting funds into gold and silver… Countries like China, Russia, India … all doing the same… More revelations on the financial scandal fronts… and QE3 threatening to upset the dollar… It never ceases to amaze me how many things are linked in to Silver and Gold. Lots of fodder for our newsletter… has been a real challenge to pick which articles to post… if you want to see the 'rejects' go to our Facebook page!

Why You Always Want Physical EverythingZeroHedge

Submitted by Simon Black of Sovereign Man blog

On the way from San Marino yesterday, I had to stop for some gas near Rimini, a beautiful beach town on Italy's Adriatic coast. As an aside, Italian gas prices are among the highest in Europe… and the world… at €1.77 per liter (almost USD $8.50 per gallon).

Naturally, the vast majority of this is due to taxes. From the € 1.77 per liter, only about € 0.48 can be attributed to the price of oil. Profit margin and distribution costs run about € 0.28. The rest of it (just over 1 euro) is tax. This amounts to an effective tax rate of over 130% on fuel.

Anyhow, when I pulled in to the gas station, I whipped out my American Express card and asked the attendant in broken Italian to turn on the pump. He acted like I had just punched him in the gut, wincing when he saw my credit card. "No… cash, only cash," he said.

I didn't have very much cash on me, so I drove to the next station where a similar experience awaited me.

This is a trend that is typical when economies are in decline- cash is king. Businesses often won't want to spend the extra 2.5% on credit card merchant fees… but more importantly, distrust of the banking system and a debilitatingly extractive tax system pushes people into cash transactions.

You can't really blame them. In Italy there's massive distrust of the local banking system. Most of the banks are insolvent, and the government has already started imposing capital controls by limiting withdrawals in some cases to 1,000 euros.

As a result, many bank customers are facing substantial difficulty in accessing their funds; it's easy to understand why they want to deal in physical cash- the counterparty risk is much lower.

Nobody gives these issues much thought… right up until they get shut out of their account. But these are the real consequences of counterparty risk: anytime your asset is simultaneously someone else's liability, you might have a big problem when tough times arise. This is when physical cash becomes a premium asset.

It's the same thing with gold and silver when you think about it. In the early days of the post-Lehman financial crisis, precious metals prices were tanking. At least, on paper.

Gold and silver contract prices may have been plummeting in futures exchanges around the world, but simultaneously, premiums for physical gold and silver coins were skyrocketing. The US mint was unable to keep up with demand for physical coins, and premiums hit double digits by December 2008.

It was an obvious example of the huge disparity between the paper price and the physical price. And in tough times, the paper price is irrelevant. Physical is all that matters.

Cash is in the same boat. When you look at the numbers, the amount of physical currency in circulation is dwarfed by the digital money supply.

In the EU, the M2 money supply is 8.77 trillion euros, of which only 861 billion is in physical cash… about 9.8%. In the US, the proportion is similar- $10.02 trillion M2 money supply, $1.1 trillion in physical cash. The rest is all digits in a database.

It's a prudent idea to heed this lesson from Italy, for as the banking malaise in southern Europe spreads, cash is likely going to be a premium asset in the rest of the world as well. And it certainly makes sense for individuals to have some holdings of cold, hard cash in addition to physical metal.

After all, if you're only generating 0.0000001% interest in your bank account anyhow, what difference does it really make to hold physical cash? You're not worse off for it, but you'll be a lot better prepared in case something goes wrong.

Silver Eagles are minted by the U.S. Mint and are Legal Tender (Numismatic) Coins.
While they look very similar to our Walking Liberty Rounds, they are different:

Different reverse art - Different Eagle design, text 'United States of America' etc.

Carry a date on the face

Have a face value of $1.00 US Currency (on reverse)

Size: 40.6 mm. Walking Liberty Rounds are 39 mm.
Thickness: Since they are still 1 troy oz. .999 fine silver, and are bigger around in circumference, they are slightly thinner than the Walking Liberty Rounds

* Offer dependent upon availability, should they become unexpectedly unavailable…

New At SGS !

SGS now has the ability to process credit cards directly outside of Pay Pal. Many have expressed a desire for this feature, so you'll be happy with our direct card processing capabilities. Your credit information is not stored on our servers; it is secured by Authorize.net servers. Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards are accepted.

SGS Notes: If you've been following the prices of precious metals the last couple of weeks, you know that we saw a drop down in the high $26 range… that has been eclipsed this past week by prices moving up over $28. This is just the beginning of what looks like a new move upward in silver and gold prices, according to experts we're reading. And although our focus is precious metals, there are a lot of factors in banking and finance that have a relationship with these monetary metals, which is why we report on economic and other finance news.

Precious Metals vs. CommoditiesJeff Nielson, BullionBulls, Canada

I had the opportunity to listen to an inteview with noted commodities-guru Jim Rogers, which is never a bad investment of one's time.Rogers is both very astute, and a straight-talker; two "commodities" which I'm sure that he would purchase if he could - since both are clearly in short supply in the 21st century.

The central topic on the mind of Rogers' interviewer was Ben Bernanke's farcical testimony before the U.S. Congress. That love-fest had all the interrogative value of spending the day watching Sesame Street. Rogers was also totally unimpressed:

…Mr. Bernanke is going to print more money…I wouldn't pay much attention to the man…He only knows one thing - and that's what he's going to do…

The interview then proceeded to Rogers' specialty: the world of commodities. He remains totally committed to commodities over the long term, rightfully pointing out that as the global economy continues to be drowned in mountains of the bankers' paper currencies, that these hard assets must soar in price - as all that paper collapses in value.

When asked to compare the different commodity sectors, Rogers was also unequivocal. He was most bullish with respect to "soft" commodities and industrial commodities, while less bullish on the monetary commodities: gold and silver (at the present time). It's here that I'm going to dare to differ with Rogers to a degree.

I wouldn't presume to contradict his long-term prognosis on the future of commodities, in a commodity-starved world. In fact I completely agree with him. However, it is over the short/medium term where I believe I detect a small inconsistency in his analysis of these markets.

The inconsistency lies in the fact that Rogers fervently believes (as do I) that we are on the verge of a Flight out of Paper. He ranked the various forms of these fraud-currencies, and said he expected the holders of this paper to soon begin an exodus out of the most-worthless of them - specifically noting the U.S. dollar.

He also observes that once this exodus starts that there will not be enough stable currency remaining in the world for all of the U.S.-dollar refugees (and other paper-holders) to find a home. This leads to the obvious question: where will all those other $trillions go?

Rogers' implicit answer is that this paper will flow into his favored soft and industrial commodities. However this ignores a large and obvious practical issue: the absolute need for functional currency. Once we ditch the last of our banker-paper in favor of holding our wealth in some instrument which actually has value, we cannot simply all load up on commodities.

People are not going to go to their local shopping mall lugging bushels of wheat, barrels of oil, or truckloads of lumber in order to do their daily shopping. However, they will be quite happy to conduct their commerce using silver and/or gold coins, since as a species we have collectively had thousands of years of practice in using this only form of "good money".

What we have here is the world's foremost expert on commodities warning us that we are about to experience a shortage in a "commodity" with which our modern economies cannot function: usable currency. Then there is silver and gold. These precious metals have a 5,000-year track-record of being the world's ultimate "safe havens", because they are the only perfect form of money we have ever been able to devise.

At the same time, thanks to (literally) a century-long propaganda campaign to cause people to forget the true status of these precious metals, gold and silver have never been so under-owned as assets in the history of our species. Even when times are good, people have typically held between 5% and 10% of their wealth in gold and silver, while in times of peril those ratios typically soar.

With entire nations going bankrupt, and with the highly-respected Jim Rogers predicting an exodus out of many paper currencies (such as the U.S. dollar); we have never experienced an era of such extreme economic crises in our entire lives. Yet instead of even holding the "normal" 5 - 10% component of wealth in precious metals, Western investors currently hold only about 1% of their wealth in these assets.

Consequently, with demand/ownership at a temporary and artificial trough just as we are (apparently) about to experience an explosion in demand for these metals; the current rock-bottom prices for gold and silver cannot last. Here Rogers also had some guidance to offer investors.

He noted what is regularly pointed out by myself and other precious metals commentators: in relative terms silver remains a superior value to gold. Rogers based this assessment merely on the fact that the current gold/silver price ratio is sitting at an absurd level of roughly 55:1, as compared to the 5,000-year historical average of 15:1.

We have the world's foremost expert on commodities predicting a shortage of the most important "commodity" for any modern economy: legitimate money, the foundation of all human commerce. We have the two most-reliable forms of money currently being the two most under-owned asset classes on the planet (implying a steep discount in current prices). And we have one of those commodities (silver) priced at a further, steep discount in relation to the other (gold).

This is called "a buying opportunity."

WEEKEND SALE on ½ oz Divisible Walking Liberty Rounds !!

This weekend only (Friday - Sunday midnight) we are offering our

½ oz Walking Liberty Traditional and Divisible rounds at $1.00 off.

Price shown on the Web Site is already discounted.

New At SGS !

SGS now has the ability to process credit cards directly outside of Pay Pal. Many have expressed a desire for this feature, so you'll be happy with our direct card processing capabilities. Your credit information is not stored on our servers; it is secured by Authorize.net servers. Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards are accepted.